Saturday, December 15, 2012

One day after CT. Thoughts from one ex-teacher

When
I was still a bilingual elementary teacher of first and second grade mexicanitos in
the Denver area, tragedy was a monthly, or more, occurrence. Getting evicted
from their homes, their father put in jail, their mother losing her job, not
having food in their house, or electricity or water, an older brother wounded in a
drug deal, unmarried sister pregnant, or health problems--from open-heart
surgery for a six-year-old to daily monitoring of another for severe asthma--were the news that entered our classroom. Teachers deal with the effect such
incidents have on the learning environment, even if it seems to affect only one
child. It's not just life; in some kids' cases, it is a normal part of life.

When
another Columbine took place, such as the five mass shootings that occurred in
the last six years, I'd introduce the issue to my five through
eight-year-olds. Kids talk amongst themselves, hear adults and older siblings
talk, catch some of the meaning of media news, watch photos and videos on their home TVs. They know something happened, but not always from an adult's
perception capable of filtering the real from the hysterical, part of the reason I took the question head-on.

The
misinterpreted "2012 end of the world" supposedly coming with the end
of the Maya baktun is an example of this perception problem. I was forced to
deal with this earlier this year with first graders, because some
children, primarily from evangelical-worshipping families, had anxious looks bordering
on panic when they talked amongst themselves. You can imagine that this might affect the learning in a room.

Getting
the question out in the open didn't resolve all of every child's anxiety. But
it cleared the air some. With the baktun, the children learned where the math
and calendrical calculations came from and who the Maya were and what the
Spanish conquistadors et al did to Mexico's indigenes and how all that tied to
the children's own past. At least, I covered those at a first grade level,
reaching to help six and seven-year-olds' at their thinking level.

If
I still had a classroom, this next Monday I would have to deal with CT, because
the kids would start the morning with that in their heads. The kids that came,
that is, because there would inevitably be one or two who didn't because of
parents' anxiety about having their kid in an elementary school thousands of
miles from CT.

I'll
not conjecture on what I would exactly say to kids next Monday, nor how I'd
facilitate the discussions. But I always have started with: 1. What did you hear; 2.
What questions do you have; 3. What do you think and feel about it; and 4. Are
you scared of anything at this moment? And then the discussion would go, back
and forth, revealing sometimes incredibly distorted facts, sometimes engendering tears, and
more often, deep insights guided by the innocence and simple empathy that
little children possess.

There's more to how the process would be completed that I won't delve into.
Writing about it, drawing their feelings on paper, questions they should ask
their parents that weren't deal with (especially religion-related ones), among
others.

In fact, it's
impossible to shield little ones against the deluge of news, talk and
visual evidence about CT. Better to try to equip them with facts, let them
openly express their thoughts and feelings about it and provide them an arena
where they can learn and assuage some of their sense of helplessness.

Below
is the preamble to the Constitution. The capitalizing of words is how it was
composed and approved. In my opinion, the capitalized elements that I bolded
relate directly to the failings connected to CT. I don't feel a need to
explain those. I do note that the Founding Fathers did not capitalize what I
underlined--the common defence. What they felt didn't need such emphasis is sadly the one place where most of our tax money is wasted.

We the People of the
United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domesticTranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for
the United States of America,

Beginning
from the Reagan era, mental health was chopped and continues today to be an
area "ridiculously
underfunded." A pivotal area relating to the general
Welfare and domestic Tranquility.

Of
course, as there should be, the issues of gun control and school security have already begun inundating our national dialogue. The first one is a natural, but
not the total answer. The second is unachievable. Any madman with half a mind
can bypass any forms and procedures to get into a school.

The most lamentable
reaction to CT, in my view, will be the added security measures and equipment
that teachers and school children will be subjected to. Leading them to fel and believe
that they and every school are supposedly dangerous places. It propagates fear
without at the same time being capable of assuring better security from some madman.

Worse yet, will be
how such measures heighten our individual worries about our kids, our homes,
our neighborhoods. Some Americans will give into that fear and will retreat
further into their homes. Because our world is not safe. Is threatening. Must
be filled with madmen.

And they will welcome
additional tax money spent on police, military, surveillance, security screening, coming from an
acceptance of the pitiful idea that giving up our privacy, civil rights and
freedoms over to the authorities will somehow be better for our children. The
same thing that happened after 9/11.

And then the Constitution would read COMMON DEFENSE, with the previously capitalized words relegated to lower case. And that would be a much more complicated discussion to have with the little ones.Click here to see an interview about a new book, Rebecca Coffey's Murders Most Foul: The School Shooters in Our Midst.

by Rudy Ch. Garcia, author of El Viaje de Clarisa, featured this month in Revista Iguana. A children's fable written in Spanish. It follows a skinny, young girl (an ant) who learns to struggle and overcome the problems that life seems to never stop throwing into her path. Something possibly too relevant to our children.

2 comments:

Rudy, this is one of the most thoughtful commentaries I've read about this horrific tragedy. As a former teacher myself, I understand what you're saying about the children's fears and confusions. Also, my son is a police officer with extensive experience dealing with mentally ill people. He agrees that, until we devote the needed resources to mental health in our society, these tragedies will continue. Perhaps your next essay can touch more on this aspect of the CT tragedy. Thanks for sharing your insights with us, Rudy.